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EF1 tornado in Phillips County, Arkansas

Tornado January 22, 2012 · Phillips County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

8.4 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$325K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Monroe County → Phillips County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado moved into Phillips County from Monroe County and continued to move northeast. A large storage shed was tossed over a farm building. A few trees were knocked down and minor tree damage was noted. A couple of irrigation pivots were overturned. Some grain bins were also dented towards the top.

The wider storm

A low pressure system developed over the Southern Plains and moved to the northeast. The strong low pressure system had moved to the Kansas and Missouri border by the time the event started. A very strong low-level jet, along with a very strong jet stream, moved across the Mid-South during the evening hours. An upper level short wave moved across Arkansas during the early evening hours. This short wave was the focus of thunderstorm development which produced severe thunderstorms over parts of East Arkansas.

Began near Postelle (34.5441, -91.0534).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 361322. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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